There seems to be something off and eerie about the sewers. Before you ask, it’s not a clown–wrong movie. In Dwellers, a creepy mystery directed by/written by/starring Drew Fortier, we follow a group of three colleagues who are creating a documentary about local homeless people going missing. Their quest for information ultimately leads them to the sewers, where they uncover the horrifying truth behind the disappearances.

Dwellers is a found footage film that gives you perspective following the men creating the film as well as interaction footage. Things start off with a broadcast reporting our three main characters, Doug (Douglas Esper), James (James L. Edwards), & Drew (Drew Fortier), as missing and last seen filming in Canton, Ohio. This scene sets the tone for the movie right away, already sparking your curiosity as a viewer wanting to know what happened to these men. As if that wasn’t enough, next we see Doug (one of the missing three men) being interrogated at the police station which just creates further intrigue because wasn’t he just announced as missing? 

Fortier does a great job of switching and combining the perspectives of footage, blending both the plot/process of the characters creating the documentary and cutting back to the scenes of Doug’s interrogation. As a viewer that can lose interest quickly, I appreciated this because it kept my attention and made it that much easier to watch and enjoy. 

There were a few mentionable critiques, the main one being that the homeless people didn’t look homeless! I’m not sure what Ohio homeless people look like, but as a part-time LA resident I’ve encountered plenty of homeless and I saw no resemblance. The homeless of Dwellers looked extremely clean in fresh clothes with no distressing or holes, as though they just picked it up from the dry cleaners. There was an exception of maybe two characters that had makeup on and actually gave the guise of being homeless. Though the makeup wasn’t the best, it still gave some sense of looking rugged and grimy. Not to say all homeless people have to look disheveled and ragged, but these are individuals that don’t have the frequent luxury or access to amenities such as shelter or running water and that should be displayed to sell the illusion of the character. 

On another note, the actors who portrayed the homeless people all did such a compelling job in their roles. Fortier did well constructing the interviews together to create this eerie and ominous feeling. I’d also like to point out I appreciated the comic relief the film offers. Though it was an eerie mystery there were moments of perfectly written comedy in there, too. Overall, Dwellers was pretty good! I loved the narrative it told and how Fortier pieced the story together.

7 out of 10